Dangerous Minds
by yellowstar
Summary: REPOSTED! Dark Spectre releases a potion to affect the minds of Angel Grove and the power rangers. If he succeeds, there will be no one to stop him from destroying the universe. (PRIS)Please Review!
1. Default Chapter

Chapter 1: mind mixer

"Last one to the park is a rotten egg!" TJ shouted to his teammates as they rushed to the bridge to teleport to Angel Grove Park to enjoy their day off. Carlos and Cassie followed the blue ranger immediately, with Karone and Zhane a minute later.

"Do we have to?" whined Andros good-naturedly to his girlfriend Ashley. "Come on, it's going to be fun. Besides, we haven't had a day off in forever." She chirped as she grabbed his arm and pulled him to their gliding tubes. He didn't mind really, but he had been looking forward to spending some time with Ashley alone. But he could never turn her down, especially when she turned her bright, sunny smile on him.

"Have a good day Rangers." Alpha said cheerfully, as the remaining four rangers disappeared into streams of colored light.

"Is the mind mixer ready yet?" Dark Spectre bellowed at his feeble villains as they feverishly worked to complete their task.

"Yes master. You just push this button and it will release a chemical that will prey on the minds of everyone in Angel Grove." Mr. Jekyl replied.

"Even the power rangers?" Dark Spectre inquired with a wicked gleam in his eyes.

"Yes, even the power rangers." Mr. Jeykl confirmed to his master's delight.

"Finally the destruction of the power rangers and Angel Grove is at hand. And once they are destroyed there will be nobody to stop me from destroying the rest of the universe." Dark Spectre declared triumphantly.

"Where is that stupid Frisbee?" Zhane muttered as he searched in the woods for the flying disc. He and Ashley went chasing after the Frisbee when TJ's throw sailed was past them.

"Ah, two little lost rangers." Came the taunting voice from behind them. Ashley turned and came face to face with a tall, intimidating and new monster. Without a second thought, the monster picked her up tossing her like a rag doll across the lawn.

"Ash?" Zhane wondered why she was being so quiet. Giving up on the Frisbee, he turned around. "Oh crap." He groaned when he too came face to face with Master Mind. While the two of them faced off (unmorphed) with Master Mind, the other rangers were busy fighting off quantrons.

"So much for a day off." Carlos complained as he tossed another quantron away with ease.

"What else would you expect?" TJ retorted, leaping into the air to kick away two quantrons. Cassie and Karone easily outsmarted a group of quantrons as Andros assisted Carlos.

Ashley groaned as she forced herself to look up at the monster that was destroying her and Zhane. Before she could morph she was hit again by a blast and this one left her unmoving. Zhane never had a chance as he landed with a painful thud before darkness overcame him as well.

"That was too easy." Master Mind declared arrogantly, walking away from the two fallen rangers to find some more prey.

"Whoa!" Andros yelled in surprise when a large shadow loomed over him. He immediately took his sword and attacked. Cassie and Karone quickly jumped to his aid, leaving Carlos and TJ to finish up the quantrons.

They were surprised when it left as abruptly as it came. Its task was complete; to distract the rangers while the potion was released.

"What the hell was that?" Carlos demanded, out of breath after running to evade Dark Spectre's new monster.

"I think the question is what the hell is that?" TJ replied, pointing up to the sky. Dark clouds raced across the sky.

"Is everybody okay?" Andros asked worried as the group reformed, once they were out of danger. Cassie took a head count mentally. 'One, two, three, four, five...' Andros reached the same conclusion at the same time.

"Where are Ashley and Zhane?" He inquired, a bit panicked. The others realized that the silver and yellow rangers were missing, started looking around.

Karone tried to remember the last time she had seen them, but the battle was one big blur. All she remembered was that new crazy dangerous monster.

"Alpha! Can you give us the locations of Ashley and Zhane?" Carlos commanded over his communicator.

"Ai, Ai, Ai! There are at the southwest section of the park." The robot responded frantically. The remaining rangers hurried off to find their teammates, hoping they were all right.

Zhane was already forcing himself off the ground when he realized he was alone. He glanced to his left hoping Ashley was still where he had last seen her. "Ash!" he called out and began moving to find her when there was no response.

A soft groan alerted Zhane's attention and he found her curled up in a defensive stature. "Come on, we're getting out of here." He said, gently pulling her to her feet. She held unto the silver ranger, shaken up by the sudden attack. He was unnerved as well. By that time the others had reached them.

"Ashley, Zhane. Thank gods you're alright!" Andros said relieved as they came upon their two friends.

"What happened?" Carlos asked, taking in their battered appearance.

"Just a run in with one of Dark Spectre's new monsters." Zhane explained as he released the yellow ranger to her boyfriend's waiting arms.

"We never got to morph." Ashley added in slowly. Andros turned his attention to his girlfriend. Tears were streaming down her face as shock set in. "Shh, it's ok Ash." He soothed her as he gazed over her for any obvious signs of injury or pain.

He could only imagine what they had gone through. "Seven to teleport." He declared grimly as they returned to the mega ship to figure out what happened.

Meanwhile, Dark Spectre was celebrating the success of his evil plan. "Soon all of Angel Grove and the power rangers will be so self-centered, they won't know or care that I'm about to destroy the universe."

"What is it Alpha?" Zhane demanded as they appeared on the bridge. Before Alpha could respond though, Karone and Andros dragged Zhane and Ashley to the medical bay. The scanners concluded that there was no serious damage other than some bruises and the fact that they would be incredibly sore.

"What's going on Alpha?" Zhane repeated. The robot was acting stranger than normal.

"Do you have any information about this new monster?" Andros wanted to know.

"Master Mind was a distraction." Alpha informed them. "From what?" Cassie inquired cautiously.

"Dark Spectre has poisoned the world with his mind mixer." Came the grim reply from the ship's computer.

"Is it serious?" TJ demanded. "I'm afraid so TJ. Unfortunately we do not know the full extent of his poison and what it will do to those who have been affected." Deca replied regretfully.

What had started out as a good day, an uneventful day of playing in the park had now turned solemn. "Have we been affected?" Karone questioned fearfully as she stared up at the camera.

"I'll have to run a few tests to be sure." Deca answered honestly. The seven teens returned to the medical bay. Five of the rangers were found to be poisoned. Ashley and Zhane were the only ones who remained unscathed.

"But why weren't we affected Alpha?" Ashley wondered in confusion. Silence filled the air as the shock of the situation began to settle in. Zhane sitting in a corner comforting Karone finally answered. "We were unconscious." The silver ranger guessed.

"How could we not have noticed?" Andros exclaimed in frustration. Ashley put her arm around him to calm him down and guided him to his chair. Without thinking, he pulled the yellow ranger down to sit on his lap as they continued the discussion.

"Even if you had, there was nothing you could have done Andros." Deca informed the red ranger.

"What do you mean? Did you know something Deca?" He demanded, looking straight into the camera and waited for her response.

"Yes Andros, I knew it was there." The computer admitted.

"How do we get rid of this poison?" TJ questioned logically.

"The only way to destroy the mind mixer is to find its location and destroy it." Deca said in her usual calm manner.

"Well what are we waiting for?" Carlos declared urgently. "Let's find this thing and destroy it!" Just then the power went out and the mega ship plunged into darkness.

The power returned a minute later but with no response from Deca. "Deca?" Ashley called out tentatively.

"Cassie. TJ. Set the computer to manual override. We'll have to bypass Deca to get the ship functional." Zhane took charge. The pink and blue rangers managed to get the systems back online, but Deca refused to cooperate.

"Now what?" Carlos inquired, looking around to his teammates for answers.

"We better rest. I have a feeling its going to be a long, hard battle on our hands with the mind mixer." Andros announced grimly.

"Well I'm exhausted, I'm going to take a nap." Ashley decided, trying to hide her yawn behind her hand.

"Me too." Zhane agreed, his body sore from the beating he took that morning. His humor hadn't been bruised though; looking at Andros he added, "How about we nap together?" he suggested throwing his arm around Ashley.

"Shut up Zhane!" Ashley and Andros said in unison, with Ashley pushing him away. Their gentle banter broke the tension in the room. Ashley laughed while Andros gave his best friend his famous stare before chasing after him. Zhane escaped to his room while Andros returned to the bridge for Ashley.

"Are you okay?" He asked concerned, taking in her tired appearance. "Yeah, just a little sore." She replied, trying to reassure him. "Okay." He relented believing her. Before she went into her room he pulled her close. "I love you Ash." He whispered as he held her tight. He didn't know why but he felt an urge to tell her that. "I love you too." She repeated, loving hear him say those words to her.

"Wake me up if you find out anything." She made him promise. "Right." He agreed and gave her a quick kiss before letting her get her nap. Ashley fell asleep with no thoughts of the danger that lay ahead.

The other five rangers settled in on the bridge to do some research on the new monster that was Master Mind and Dark Spectre's project, the mind mixer.

'What am I doing here?' Cassie wondered to herself. 'I should be with Saryn, the man I love, not risking my life for this lousy planet. I'm over this.' She thought bitterly. 'They won't notice if I leave.' She decided as she left her station and took off for Elisia.

"Where's Cassie?" TJ asked Carlos suddenly noticing the pink ranger's absence.

"How would I know?" Carlos asked angrily. "Chill man. I was just asking a question." TJ replied, a bit startled at Carlos's reaction. He ran a scanner looking for Cassie's morpher. A beep behind him shocked him as he saw her pink morpher lying by her station. "She's gone." He realized in astonishment.

'This sucks. I should be chasing down soccer balls, not a missing power ranger, or stupid monsters. Not the way I planned my senior year.' Carlos thought regretfully. Carlos noticed that Cassie was gone. "If she can leave so can I." He remarked forcefully, peeling off his morpher and giving it to TJ.

"Don't call me, I'll call you." He spat out distastefully as he teleported back to earth.

"What's going on?" TJ asked the two remaining rangers in absolute bewilderment.

"Nothing." Andros argued in their defense. "They did what I should have done long ago. I've got better things to do than baby-sit a bunch of wanna be power rangers." He decided suddenly. "Come on Karone. Let's go back to our own planet." Andros grabbed his sister and just like that the two were gone.

TJ looked around at the empty bridge. He didn't feel like fighting if no one else was going to. Shrugging, he threw off his own morpher and went back to earth to get on with his life.

The alarm rang out through the nearly empty mega ship, shocking the two sleeping rangers out of their slumber.

Ashley almost rolled out of bed at the sudden intrusion of her sleep. She was still tired from the morning's battle, but adrenaline rushed through her as she went to see what was going on. She ran into Zhane in the hallway who was wiping sleep from his eyes. The two raced to the bridge to get the report from Alpha.

"Quantrons in the park." The robot announced as the scene played on the monitors. Ashley and Zhane rushed by and headed for the gliding tubes without realizing that they were all alone.

"Where is everybody?" Zhane demanded irritated as two arrived at the park. They didn't have time to dwell on that thought as quantrons began advancing on the two rangers.

They managed to defeat all the quantrons but the effort had been exhausting. Dark Spectre wasn't done though, sending Master Mind to destroy the remaining rangers.

"Ah my two favorite rangers." Master Mind taunted as he blasted them with his laser.

"Aahh!" Zhane and Ashley groaned in unison as they hit the ground hard. They forced themselves off the ground and charged the monster. "Star Slinger!" The yellow ranger shouted as Zhane drew his saber sword. The two were clearly outmatched and quickly tired.

"We're done." Ashley lamented as she and Zhane tried to evade blasts from Master Mind.

"Not yet." He declared fiercely. "Delta Megazord!" He shouted desperately. A few blasts sent Master Mind into retreat, much to their surprise. "I'll be back for you two." He threatened as he disappeared.

Ashley and Zhane were too tired to be relieved as they teleported back to the mega ship. The first thing they noticed was the utter stillness of the ship. "Where's everybody?" Zhane repeated his question from before. The absence of their teammates was frightening and curious.

"Ashley, Zhane!" Alpha exclaimed, glad they were back. "The rest of the rangers took off while you were asleep. I'm afraid the poison has already begun to affect their brains." Alpha stated sadly. "The mind mixer has also shut down Deca and other computer systems in Angel Grove."

Ashley and Zhane stood motionless in complete shock. The others were gone. "Are you okay?" he questioned looking at the two fatigued rangers.

"We will be as soon as we get to the medical bay." Zhane admitted as he inventoried his and Ashley's condition. Nothing seemed broken, but everything was hurting. Neither would turn down some healing from the regenerator. Especially since they seemed to be down five rangers.

"We're never going to be able to stop the mind mixer and stop all the monsters Dark Spectre keeps sending." Ashley warned as they lay recovering on the patient beds.

"You're right." Alpha agreed as he ran the bone scanner over Ashley as a precaution that Zhane had insisted on. "I've called in some backups." He informed them.


	2. chapter 2

Chapter 2:

"Who are you going to get to back us up?" Ashley asked doubtfully. "Everyone in Angel Grove has been affected." She reminded the robot regretfully.

"I found some rangers outside of Angel Grove." Alpha declared as five streams of light appeared on the bridge. "Ashley and Zhane, you remember Kim, Rocky, Aisha, Jason, and Zack."

"Hey guys. Thanks for coming back to help." Zhane said graciously, grateful for their help.

"We'll do whatever needs to be done." Jason spoke up for the entire team.

"I'm afraid it's quite a task." Alpha acknowledged as footage of downtown Angel Grove played on the main monitor. The seven watched in horror as crime was rampant with people breaking into cars and stores, thousands of items being stolen, and people being hurt.

"It's like no one even cares anymore." Kim commented sadly as they shut off the disturbing images on the monitor.

"They don't." Zhane confirmed. "Whatever was in that potion Dark Spectre poisoned Angel Grove with has caused everyone to only care about themselves."

Alpha took the new team for some training and debriefing while Ashley and Zhane concentrated on taking down the mind mixer.

"What are we going to do Zhane? We can't destroy the mind mixer ourselves." Ashley cried out in distress. She slumped against the console in front of her. "Deca's not responding, our teammates are missing, and Dark Spectre..." She continued dispiritedly.

"Come on Ash. It may be a long shot but we're the only ones here who can save them. Who can save the city." Zhane decided firmly. He was about to continue when Alpha rejoined them on the bridge.

"So what do we do now?" Ashley demanded as she paced back and forth on the bridge.

"Luckily Deca left us some information on this mind mixer. She was prepared for this situation." Zhane said as he read through the files on the computer.

"Then why didn't she stop it?" Ashley protested angrily. Angry that her teammates were ill, angry with Dark Spectre for attacking her town, and angry that Deca had let it all happen. Zhane understood her anger, even agreed with her; but they needed to focus on the matter at hand.

"She couldn't stop it, but you can." Alpha encouraged the duo before leaving to check on the others.

"Why us?" Ashley wondered sadly. "Why couldn't we all have been spared?"

"Good timing I guess." Zhane quipped. "It could have been anyone of us Ash, but for some reason it's the two of us and we're going to work like hell to defeat that monster!"

"You're right Zhane." Ashley agreed slowly. "I just don't want them to suffer." She said softly as tears began to fall from her brown eyes.

"Don't cry Ash. We're going to get them back." Zhane said confidently. "We have to."

"Yeah." She conceded, sounding more like her old self. "We can't let Dark Spectre win."

"It looks like we've got our work cut out for us, so let's get busy." Zhane directed and ushered her to the bridge.

Zhane and Ashley were quickly immersed in their research. "Wow." Zhane mumbled in amazement at the amount of detail and preparation that would have to be done to even attempt this mission.

"Ashley, Zhane. It's 2 am. You need to get to sleep." Alpha begged the two weary rangers.

"Alpha, we've got too much work to do here." Ashley complained, gesturing towards the piles of books and papers strewn about.

"Ashley, you might make a miscalculation by being too tired. Please, just go to sleep. You can continue in the morning." Alpha declared firmly.

Ashley was about to protest when Zhane stood up next to her. "He's right Ash. Come on let's get some sleep."

Sensing she wasn't' going to win this argument, she reluctantly put down her books and followed the silver ranger out of the research laboratory.

"It just seems so lonely without everyone here." She whispered breaking the silence as the two friends exited the lift and walked down the corridor to their rooms. They happened to stop in front of Andros's room as Zhane considered her statement.

"I miss them too." He confided in a rare moment of somberness.

"I wonder if we'll see them again." She confessed quietly.

"Sure we will Ash." The blond haired boy declared confidently. "They'll come back to us."

"But what if we don't come back to them? This mission is more difficult than anything we've ever faced, psychos included. And it's just the two of us." Ashley sighed as she thought about the arduous battle that lay before them.

"That's true, but we're not going to just let Dark Spectre destroy them, destroy everything. We have to try our best, that's all we can do." Zhane advised. "Let's try to get some rest and do some more training in a few hours."

"Would it be okay if I stayed in Andros' room?" Ashley hesitated. Zhane's heart went out to her. His normally cheerful teammate was subdued and anxious. He hadn't thought it possible that his moody best friend would ever fall in love. But when he had met her, he knew that she was undoubtedly in love with Andros as well.

"Sure Ash. Good night." He whispered, gracing her cheek with his lips gently and pushing her into Andros's room and hoping she would get some rest.

Despite the events of the day, the two fell into bed exhausted.

7 hours later, Ashley and Zhane resumed the tortuous task of digging through Deca's files to find the necessary information to begin plotting their attack on Dark Spectre's compound.

Silence filled the room as they poured over tons of data when Ashley's excited scream pierced the air. "I found something!"

Zhane raced over from his side of the table. "What is it?" He asked frantically, as he peered over her shoulder.

"Listen. Every third Friday in March, the alliance of evil meets to celebrate the last moon rising." Ashley stated eagerly.

"Which means?" Zhane asked in confusion, as if he should know the importance of this discovery.

"This Friday is the third Friday in March. That means all the evil beings are required to be at this meeting, which means no one will be at the compound watching the mind mixer." She finished with a smug look on her face as she leaned back on her chair and crossed her arms. She waited as understanding dawned on the silver ranger.

"Ash! You're a genius!" He hollered as he gave her a kiss on her cheek.

"Well now we just have to figure out how to destroy the mixer by Friday." She reminded him, bringing him back to reality.

"Oh yeah, why don' t you give me something hard to figure out." Zhane said sarcastically, as he returned to seat.

"There's another thing." Ashley added reluctantly as she studied the plans of the compound. "Apparently there is a frequency coded barrier around the compound. If we go morphed we won't even get in."

"Great." Zhane moaned. "Could this mission be any harder?" he complained in disbelief. Alpha had overheard their conversation and knew the two rangers needed a pep talk. "You weren't' chosen to be power rangers just because of your physical talent." The robot began. "Zhane, your courage and boldness is an incredible asset to the team and it will help you in this mission." The robot encouraged the silver ranger before turning to the downcast yellow ranger.

"And Ashley, your loyalty and optimism have seen the team through the toughest of battles. This will be an extraordinarily tough mission, but you were chosen for such a time as this." Alpha finished and let the rangers dwell on his statements.

"He's right." Ashley murmured in agreement after a few minutes of contemplative silence. "We can do it." She declared looking at Zhane. "Or die trying." She finished.

"Or die trying." Zhane agreed solemnly.

Alpha came in at noontime to bring Zhane and Ashley their lunch. "What are you looking at?" He questioned the busy rangers as they poured over the blueprint in front of them.

"Zhane found a blueprint of Dark Spectre's compound in Deca's files. Now we're trying to figure out how to get to the mind mixer." Ashley spoke up without moving her eyes from the plans.

"Is there anything I can do?" The robot questioned hopefully.

Zhane glanced at Ashley before replying. "Actually Alpha there is. Can you get us a pod that we can use for transportation?"

"It's got to be small enough so it can be cloaked." The yellow ranger added.

The robot chirped excitedly. "Sure thing Zhane, I'll get right on it." Alpha hurried out to the room to begin his task. Ashley and Zhane shared a small laugh at the robot's enthusiasm.

"Why didn't you tell Alpha about getting a high tech medical facility for the pod?" Ashley wondered, looking at Zhane for an answer.

"I didn't' want to worry him with all the things we are going to have to add to the pod in order for this mission to be accomplished as successfully as possible." Zhane explained somberly, as the weight of the task at hand filled the two rangers. "Besides, I don't want to get his hopes up. I mean the chances are small that if we did somehow survive an explosion on the compound, that we would be able to be teleported back to the pod, where lifesaving stations could sustain us if someone were able to find any traces of the pod." Zhane's statement confirmed the dangerousness of their mission.

"I don't want to die so let's find out the best plan to accomplish our goal and do it." Ashley declared firmly.

Hours later, Zhane finished the arduous task of finding a path to the mind mixer. "Ok this is what I've come up with so far. First, we have to disable the security system. Then we descend into the main lobby from the roof and enter into a side room where we have to maneuver through a series of mines and traps. After that we bear left down a long hallway and into the blue room where we disable the explosives. Finally we get the codes and enter the warehouse where the mind mixer is and destroy it." Zhane spelled out the plan that would enable them to save their friends and the world from the evil spell.

"I guess we should break down the mission into separate parts and work on learning how to accomplish each one." She recommended. "Then we'll practice and train for each level and be as prepared as possible for Friday." She concluded as she and Zhane separated the tasks and set off to determine a plan of action for each step.

"22 seconds." Ashley declared triumphantly as she stopped her stopwatch as Zhane unhooked from his harness besides her. They had been practicing all afternoon and had the descent part down to less than half a minute.

"Good." Zhane commented, finally satisfied with their results. "Next we have to maneuver through a series of mines and traps." They managed to get a scan of the compound from a space satellite and downloaded it unto the simudeck so they could practice their strategy.

"There's gotta be a quicker way." Zhane swore under his breath frustrated. It had taken them four hours to get through the mines and traps. Dark Spectre's compound was far more extensive they had imagined. "If we don't get this part down under four hours there is no way we'll be able to even attempt to destroy the mind mixer and escape." He tried hard to hide his irritation from Ashley.

"Zhane." Ashley said quietly. "Don't worry about me. I know the reality of this mission; you don't have to protect me. I can handle it." She reassured him as she pulled him into a hug. "There's two of us, you don't have to take responsibility all on yourself. We'll do it together." She promised him as she pulled away and squeezed his hands.

"Maybe there's a way we can shorten all the other parts of the mission?" Ashley suggested hopefully as she turned away to study the blueprints more carefully.


End file.
